They had taken control of last night’s game against Florida just as they had taken command of Saturday’s game against Atlanta and last Thursday’s game against the Devils. Still, though, having just completed a 15-minute stretch bridging the first and second periods in which they’d outshot the Panthers 24-2, the Rangers led by only 1-0.

But then the Blueshirts earned their first five-on-three power play of the season. And Tom Renney turned to his team’s version of the nuclear option, putting five forwards on the ice with an alignment that included Jaromir Jagr on the right point. Bang. The explosion.

After a timeout during which assistant coach Mike Pelino used the grease board to diagram the set-up, Jagr, set up by left point Martin Straka’s soft ladle, whistled a one-time slap past beleaguered Roberto Luongo to give the Blueshirts a 2-0 lead at 14:30.

Just 42 seconds later, on yet another five-on-three, Jagr converted another lovely Straka feed into another one-time slap shot. The rout on the ice was at that point affirmed by the scoreboard.

The Rangers were well on their way to a 4-0 victory in which Henrik Lundqvist registered 23 saves – few of them especially challenging – for his first NHL shutout.

And though there were thousands of empty seats in the building, the Garden rocked with a succession of standing ovations.

It’s early, no question about that, and the Rangers and the season are very much in the embryonic stage of development, but this much is clear – this is the Peoples’ Team.

All the more shameful, then, that the NHL continued to abdicate its responsibility and contractual right to direct the Outdoor Life Network not to black out Cablevision subscribers on exclusive telecasts. Shame on the league for depriving Rangers fans who have scratched a seven-year itch until it bleeds of the ability to watch last night’s match.

A quick recap, then: in many ways, the game was similar to the ones against the Devils and Thrashers that the fans could see on MSG.

Leading 3-0 after two against New Jersey and 4-0 after two against Atlanta, the Rangers led 4-0 after two last night. Their defense was outstanding on the transition in moving the puck and getting it deep. The forwards outworked their opponents in all three zones, winning nearly every battle they created.

No wonder the Blueshirts were able to pump 49 shots on net.

“The way we played,” said King Henrik of Sweden. “I’m getting used to it.”

The two goals by Jagr gave him six in seven games on the season, all on the power play. They also leave him with a career total of 543 goals, second only to Jari Kurri’s 601 among European-born players after breaking a tie with Stan Mikita.

To hear Jagr tell it, he scored the first 450 or so without knowing how to shoot a one-time slap shot.

“Sergei Gonchar taught that to me in Washington two years ago,” said Jagr. “I didn’t know how to shoot until then, really.”

The Rangers went 3-for-7 on the power play last night, Fedor Tyutin having gotten the first one from between the hash marks at the 19:00 mark of the first. They were spotless on the PK, killing all four Florida man advantages. They got the lone even-strength score of the match on Petr Prucha’s first NHL goal, at 18:27 of the second.

The Blueshirts are 4-1-2 going into a back-to-back, home-and-home against the Islanders that starts at the Garden tomorrow night. They’re improving steadily – Tom Poti, for example, has begun to assert himself and his offensive game in the aftermath of his Game 3 benching at the Meadowlands – while remaining true to their work ethic.

“We’ve been a team from the first day of training camp,” Jagr said. “The players here are the ones the organization and coaching staff wanted.”